QuickTime 3.0 Preview -- Today, Apple released a much-awaited developer preview of QuickTime 3.0, also known as the QuickTime Media Layer. QuickTime is one of Apple's most successful technologies, and Apple hopes to extend its reach by making QuickTime 3.0 fully cross-platform. Currently, Windows users can play back QuickTime media, but with QuickTime 3.0, both Windows and Mac developers will have full access to QuickTime's capabilities - playback, authoring, capture, compression, and more. Along with the many formats already supported, QuickTime 3.0 adds support for a variety of cross-platform and high-end video, image, and audio formats, including the forthcoming DV digital video format. QuickTime 3.0 also handles fast-downloading vector graphics, plus real-time effects and transitions. Apple's message to developers is simple: QuickTime offers the best media support for both Mac and Windows.
<http://devworld.apple.com/mkt/informed/ appledirections/ aug97/stratmosaic.html>
The Macintosh preview requires System 7.0 or later, at least 8 MB of RAM and a 68020 processor (some features are PowerPC-only). If you work with digital media or video, it's worth checking out, especially if you're a programmer - both sample files and copious developer information are available at the QuickTime 3.0 preview site. The download is about 3.7 MB. [GD]